Water price review 2023

Draft decisions

We have released draft decisions on the price submissions of:

• Gippsland Water
• GWMWater
• Westernport Water
• Yarra Valley Water. 

We are preparing draft decisions for the remaining 10 water businesses. We will undertake further consultation after we release each draft decision.

Our review

We are reviewing submissions from 14 water businesses on their proposed prices and key service outcomes to apply from 1 July 2023.

Water businesses submitted their proposals on 30 September 2022.

The proposals will be assessed against a legal framework established by the Victorian Government and set out in the  Water Industry Regulatory Order, and the commission’s PREMO pricing framework.

PREMO includes incentives for each water business to put forward its best offer to customers and deliver the outcomes its customers value most.

We released our guidance paper in October 2021, which sets out the information each business will be required to provide us in its price submission. We also explain our approach and methodology to assessing water businesses' price submissions and making a price determination.

We have introduced the backward-looking 'Performance' element of PREMO, which holds businesses accountable for their price and service commitments from the previous price review. And as this review will be the second round under PREMO for these businesses, price submissions will need to demonstrate how water businesses are building on their previous proposals to deliver great value to their customers.

Following consultation, we issue a determination that sets the maximum prices that water businesses may charge customers.

We will seek feedback from customers and stakeholders of the water businesses at multiple points throughout the price review process to inform our decision-making process.

See the relevant water business page below for details of their proposals.

How does this affect you?

The 14 water businesses included in our review provide water and sewerage services to domestic, business and rural customers across Victoria.

Our determination impacts how much customers will pay for the services they receive from their water business, and the key service outcomes they can expect for the period from 1 July 2023.

What are we looking at?

We must assess the price submissions against a legal framework and issue a final determination that specifies the maximum prices and service levels for 14 water businesses.

We have received the first round of feedback 

We consulted on the businesses' price submissions until 1 December 2022.  We received 46 public submissions, mostly via Engage Victoria. These submissions have now been published on the below pages for each business.

Several submissions were marked as confidential, and these will not be published. See our Submissions Policy for how we approach public submissions.